By Alysse Stepanian
“Language, Symbolism, and Unsettling Acts of De-Erasure” is the title of a new global-scale, year-long arts initiative by the Creative Action Coalition (CAC) artist group. Phase I of this project, “Ayb-Ben Այբ-Բեն” is addressed to the Armenian artists around the world. Other manifestations that may happen simultaneously, will include artists from other Indigenous communities.
Over a year ago, CAC was launched in response to the destruction of Armenian heritage and the violence that Armenians continue to face since the 2020 invasion of Artsakh. Realizing that the Armenian predicament is not unique, CAC has expanded its mission to include non-Armenian indigenous communities, those who have been struggling with social invisibility, and cultures whose identities have suffered the consequences of imperialism, invasions, settler societies, and colonization. Our goal is to help build international solidarities for global resistance to systemic oppressions through art.
“Armenia, situated in the crossroads of East and West, has survived centuries of invasions and massacres. Yet an uncanny absence of Armenian ancient cultural heritage permeates world art history textbooks, which serves the devaluation, destruction, recontextualization, appropriation, and negative stereotyping of Armenian culture.” The mainstream arts communities must understand that Armenian heritage is part of world heritage.
Dreams are shaped by language, the essence of every culture. Recently, I completed “Ayb-Ben Այբ-Բեն”, a surreal video art piece in which a defiant woman loudly and vigorously recites the Armenian alphabet in an insistent pulse. Intermingled are cultural symbols, symbolic flowers, and letters from the Persian and English alphabets denoting her diasporic identity. The recognition of the interconnectedness of oppressions and the necessity of solidarities is symbolized by the fusion of Armenian forget-me-not flowers and Palestinian poppies. The process and research that led to this work has inspired me to reach out to other artists to manifest a new global project. I am calling on Armenian artists to join me to present our culture to the world and help put an end to the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage by making it part of mainstream consciousness.
This initiative will have multiple iterations, enriched by individual voices and collective concerns that defy cultural erasure throughout centuries of colonization, tragedies, and violence.
